If that's the case, Microsoft may add support for these new gesture features to make a mandatory Kinect connection less of a bitter pill to swallow.

A glimpse into how the new gestures may be used in games was demonstrated at Microsoft's TechFest, going on this week at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The gesture features was demoed there working with a casual Windows 8 game called Jetpack Joyride.

Kinect was introduced as an add-on for the Xbox, but Microsoft has sought to attract PC developers to the device by introducing developer kits for them, too.

Some hardware makers have also dabbled with the device. Asus, for example, introduced a laptop with Kinect tech built into it.

Although there hasn't been a groundswell of demand for Kinect-enabled PCs, the new gesture capabilities for the device could make it an interesting alternative to a mouse or touchpad.